Godspawn Ascendant [LitRPG, Epic Progression Fantasy]

First, my vision filled with an abundance of essence unlike anything I'd ever seen before. The strands twisted and tangled around each other like disorganized blobs, glowing a blue so bright that it hurt my eyes.

Second, I saw why the intertwined streams of dancing blue gathered en masse above our heads.

Visions of spotted fur, slimy skin, and even dry, flaky scales of reptile-like creatures hovered menacingly above us. The two dozen or so monsters glared down at us from their various perches and ledges, some wedged within large cracks of the wall, all waiting to pounce.

The monstrous hooting and hollering began again, just as it had before when we'd climbed down and into the rift.

They planned this. Somehow, a group of monstrous beasts who snarled and howled at us as we entered the rift, came together and agreed to remain silent when it counted and create an–

"Ambush," Gareth growled, interrupting my thoughts.

Gareth instinctively spread his legs and widened his arms in front of us as if he could protect the entire team against at least 24 monsters with just his body. And though he was impressively large and muscular and higher-Tiered than any of Elite Group #1, I highly doubted he could take on every creature by himself.

"I swear, these monsters are getting smarter every day," Gareth said.

It wasn't an unfeasible idea that the creatures could coordinate an ambush together. In fact, they all had. The proof of it lingered above like a tall, teetering tree ready to fall on each of us at any given second. I had once thought the Nagari back home to be mindless monsters with no sense of strategy or emotion, but I had been wrong then. Why couldn't these monsters have sentience, as well?

My neck hurt from craning it back to continue to stare apprehensively at the creatures in front of me. One in particular, with heavily speckled fur that looked as if someone had spilled a shaker of pepper from the academy's mess hall into a pile of white salt, glowered its comically large eyes directly into my face.

The beast curled its cat-like paws around the lip of the ledge it crouched upon and licked its pink lips as it studied me up and down. It flicked its long tail back and forth like an erratic snake on the prowl. A dark line of fur curled around its mouth upward into a pattern that almost looked like an intimidating smile, adding to the giant cat monster's eeriness. In fact, the illusory smile looked so real on its face that I accepted it as reality.

And I smiled right back.

"Be ready," Gareth said, his voice nearly drowned out by the excited trillings of the monsters above us. "They can attack at any second."

I counted my breaths, all the while feeling like my lungs expanded and deflated in slow motion. I only counted to three exhales before the monsters did, in fact, attack.

The next thing I knew, my face and mouth were full of musty-smelling fur as the giant cat pounced on me before anything else could. I heard the cries of the others in my team around me as other creatures also attacked, but their cries were muffled as the cat wrapped its paws around my ears.

But I wouldn't allow the oversized cat any more advantage.

Just as the rough pads on its paws began to press onto my skull in a death grip that could kill me at any second (Why did this cat thing want to squish my head?), I threw my spear into my left hand and, now with a better angle, thrust the sharp tip into the monster's side. The weapon squished into a chunk of the cat's meaty flesh.

The cat monster yelped and slackened its grip on my head. There was just enough slack that I was able to wrench myself free. I let go of my spear for a split second and somersaulted underneath the cat's tall legs. Then, within the time it took to take in one half breath, I pulled out the spear from the monster's flank and shoved it directly between the cat's front legs, where I assumed its heart might reside.

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The cat stumbled, its head drooping below its shoulders. It began to turn around to face me, but before it could, I called in at least a hundred streams of essence into my armor and at least another hundred into my own body with barely a thought. I used the extra boost of strength and agility to simultaneously yank my spear free from the cat's chest muscle and leap backward about two feet, expertly avoiding the claw-filled clutches the cat made at me.

The cat swayed from left to right as it tried to approach me, its tail drooping from exhaustion. I allowed the cat one last attempt to swipe a paw at me. I dodged the strike and, forcing some essence streams into my spear, slammed the tip directly through the monster's chin. I continued to jam it through until the weapon lodged deep inside its head, dripping crimson blood all over the shaft of my weapon and down my carefully polished gauntlets.

I stared into the beast's eyes, mentally urging it to give up the fight. It could barely keep eye contact with me. The light of life began to dim from its dark irises, then completely extinguished as the cat slumped over, lifeless before my feet.

I barely had time to recover my weapon from the corpse before another monster slithered its way behind me, attempting to strike with stealth on its side. But I could sense the snake-like monster's approach and whirled around on it. It was a large snake creature, but only about a third of the size of the Rockcrawlers I'd fought in Edrona.

The snake's brown, scaly tail flicked underneath my feet again and again as it tried to trip me. I leaped over the tail each time with little effort, continuously cycling the abundant supply of essence surrounding me through my armor and body to maintain my stamina. But the snake was relentless, hissing and striking so often and quickly that it didn't allow me a chance to throw in any strikes of my own.

All in my party engaged with their own opponents. Gareth alone had three monsters surrounding him, one with a ten-foot-long scorpion tail protruding from its furry back. So, I couldn't expect much help from any of my companions. We were heavily outnumbered.

I could cast a spell….

But just as I had that thought, three more snakes slightly larger than the first joined in on teasing me with their flashy fangs and speedy, whip-like tails. I could see the flash of lights around me as members of Elite Group #1 cast their own spells, but I couldn't think quick enough as one tail after another slammed into my sides.

Suddenly, a spark of red flared up in my vision as a stinging bite pierced through my leg armor and deep into the muscle of my left calf. I hissed in both shock and agony as the pain pounded through my entire left side.

Are these snake monsters venomous?

I immediately began pouring essence into my veins and toward the wound, but the bite distracted me so much that the snakes took advantage of my situation. Each one wrapped its tail around my legs and pulled me to the ground.

"Eira!" I called through a mouthful of dirt. "I could use your help!"

Besides providing me the ability to better channel essence, especially when streams were not around, I had yet to find out exactly what my pet could do in a fight.

Eira's ghostly visage poured out of her disc from the pouch tied securely at my hip. She spun out into the air in wisps of glowing silver. The wisps gathered together until they formed her antlered form. She pranced around my hand on her four long legs, trying to nudge at me (to no avail as she still was not corporeal) with enthusiasm.

"Yes, hi," I groaned through the pain. "Can you help me?"

The snakes seemed temporarily distracted and taken aback by the sudden appearance of Eira. Though their distraction was short-lived. They shook themselves out from their awestruck state and began approaching me once again.

I forced streams of essence through the entire left side of my body even faster, trying desperately to attain some feeling back into my leg so I could stand.

And then Eira proved herself useful.

My antlered horse ghost pet narrowed her bright eyes and dropped her head toward the snakes, positioning her antlers in their direction like a threat. But what could she do to fight them? Her body wasn't solid.

A beam of sparkly silver light shot from the tips of her antlers and hit the largest snake squarely in the mouth. The snake flew back about 15 or so feet and landed on the stone ground, motionless.

If snakes could drop their jaws in shock, the remaining two definitely did. They're forked tongues hung out of their angled mouths, and their skinny, diamond eyes widened larger than I'd ever imagined snake eyes could.

Eira proceeded to shoot her magical light at the other two snakes, and they met with the same fated outcome as their comrade.

I whistled. "Eira, that was amazing!"

My pet threw her head back proudly, her flowing mane dancing behind her as she did.

Eira had bought me enough time to pump enough essence through my body to trick my leg into thinking there was, in fact, no gaping snake bite wound in my calf. I avoided looking down and assessing the gory damage, determined that attending to the bite was a problem for later. I leaped back to my feet, feeling invigorated.

"Stay with me and help as much as you can," I said to Eira.

I faced the remaining monsters and my comrades as they struggled against them.

I then said mostly to myself, "I'm going to try my new Skill, the Echo Snare."